Less Time in your In Basket — The Great 8!

Johns Hopkins Medicine is going through a change initiative to off-load physician/faculty In Basket work by empowering staff to manage more messages, and by teaching everyone to be more efficient. The Great 8 In Basket Optimization Initiative has three phases, starting with general education and training of clinical support staff, managers and providers (Phase 1), followed by at-elbow coaching to reinforce the new workflows (Phase 2), and longer-term reinforcement, re-education and evaluation (Phase 3). 

All Johns Hopkins faculty, physicians/APPs, managers and clinical support staff members in our ambulatory practices should register for training.

Questions? Email: [email protected]

Review progress so far: Great 8 Progress - 2024

FAQS & Guides

See below for Great 8 In Basket resources including eLearnings, FAQs, job aids, reference guides, and more.

Download the In Basket Scope of Practice

Ambulatory In Basket Overview Video (26 minutes)

In Basket Upgrade Overview Guide
In Basket - Comprehensive Guide
In Basket - In Basket Quick Start Guide
In Basket FAQs

For Physicians/APPs:
JHM | The Great 8 | eLearning | Providers | Introduction to In Basket Optimization
Optimize your In Basket
In Basket Management for Providers

For Managers
JHM | The Great 8 | eLearning | Managers | Introduction to In Basket Optimization
Epic In Basket for Managers
In Basket Management Strategy for Clinical Departments

For Clinical Support Staff
JHM | The Great 8 | eLearning | Staff | Introduction to In Basket Optimization
Clinical / Non-Clinical In Basket Management

Need additional resources?  Please visit the Epic Training Portal for more.

Maturing the Message

The goal of the Great 8 In Basket Optimization Initiative is to empower staff to work to the top of their scope of practice and to create a culture of ‘maturing the message.’

'Maturing the message' encourages each member of the care team to maximize their contributions by adding value to the message before forwarding to the next recipient with goal of setting the recipient up for success. This is a series of 1-3 minute videos that provide short overviews of the topics below.  You may click on each to view the video.

1. Mature the Message: In Basket Messages
2. Mature the Message: Teamwork
3. Mature the Message: Rx Request Form Pharmacy
4. Mature the Message: Referral Request Form
5. Mature the Message: Rx Request from PMAR
6. Mature the Message: Appointment Request from MyChart

Webinars, Articles, Publications

Learn more about In Basket Management and Well-Being

Epic Verona Webinars
Taming the In Basket with Kaiser Permanente Colorado: Walk Before You Run – Starting to Crawl 
Taming the In Basket with Epic: MyChart Messaging - What's Next Development Road Map 

Articles & Publications
This content is provided by institutions who are external to Johns Hopkins and Epic Verona

Physicians’ Well-Being Linked To In-Basket Messages Generated By Algorithms In Electronic Health Records
Electronic health records and burnout: Time spent on the electronic health record after hours and message volume associated with exhaustion but not with cynicism among primary care clinicians
Organizational Evidence-Based and Promising Practices for Improving Clinician Well-Being

Additional Links
Combating Clinician Burnout
AMA STEPS Forward® Practice Toolkits
JHM Office of Wellbeing